The origins of psychology Flashcards
Who was considered the first psychologist?
Wundt.
What did Wundt believe about all of nature?
That it could be studied using the scientific method (under experimental conditions e.g. reaction time).
What is structuralism?
Breaking down behaviour into basic elements that are easier to measure.
What method did Wundt adopt and why?
Introspection, to be objective.
What did introspection involve?
Stimulus exposure
Internal examination (examine and describe own thoughts)
Analysis
What is empiricism?
The belief that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience
(AO3) Describe an issue with Wundt’s method.
Introspection was actually very subjective. Relied on self-reports (internal examination). Subjectivity reduces internal validity.
(AO3) What was the advantage of the emergence of psychology as a science?
It brought empirical evidence and replicable experiments to the study of human behaviour. Paved the way for the emergence of psychology as a science. Study of human behaviour became objective and evidence-based. Allowed for the process of observation, falsification, theory development and testing.
(AO3) Why is the scientific approach not always applicable to human behaviour.
Human behaviour not subject to laws and regularities implied by scientific methods. Free will and/or very complex behaviours. Also, certain behaviours or parts of psychology are unobservable and cannot be accurately measured. Means that much of psychological research is inferential (gap between data and theories).
(AO3) Why can introspection be so inaccurate?
Impossible to infer implicit thoughts and attitudes. E.g. allowing stereotypes to influence behaviour (racial biases) causes different reactions to different people but will not be uncovered by self-report methods.
